Since many people are unfamiliar with John McCain's VP choice, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, I thought it might be helpful if I provided Palin's stance on many issues, in her own words, rather than through the storm of political spin that is sure to follow. For more information on Palin's policy positions, the OnTheIssues.org website is a pretty good source.

There is one important way in which the Democratic and Republican parties work together in bipartisan harmony. They collaborate to rig the election system to keep third party and independent candidates off the ballots and out of the public debates. They also use their vast financial resources and connections to litigate fledgling political movements into submission or even bankruptcy.

I'm so fortunate. Maybe someday in the not so distant future, as I'm thriving in the new world, in the paradise known as Obama's America, where all evil Bush/McCain policies have been stricken from the land, I can tell the little children of the beforetimes, the Dark Age, when we were all naked and starving - homeless, jobless, hopeless, alone. I can tell the children how The One brought about the Great Change unto this barren wasteland, and how we were miraculously resurrected, with tears of gratitude streaming down our thankful beaming faces. I can tell how we ignorant sheep were led from the desert and brought unto the Promised Land by he who is called Barack, the Shepherd. And verily, I can tell how the jaded naysayers were cast aside, as so many pebbles from his Shining Path. As it was foretold in a dream by the great prophet Martin some two score and five years past, the One ascended to a mountaintop in a place called Denver, and suddenly there was light, where before there had been none, where before there had been only darkness. I can tell how the plagues were removed from this hellish, fruitless place, how the stitiches were unsewn from our sightless eyes, and the land became a place called Hope, as foretold by another great prophet, William the Slick. I can tell how the great Obama rose up and waved his magic federal wand, the Shaft Of Power, and suddenly there arose a great wind, and manna fell from the sky, the rivers flowed with wine, and oil was transformed into viable sources of environmentally friendly alternative renewable energy at a reasonable cost with zero carbon emissions. And we saw that it was good. Amen.

I have to admit, day two of the Democratic National Convention was a lot more interesting than day one. On day one, the highlight was Michelle Obama receiving a standing ovation for saying she loved her country. Only Democrats would think such a statement was worthy of a standing O. Most of us take love of country for granted, but Mrs. Obama's actual convention mission was to spell it out, so we'd know she didn't really mean those previous comments she made about not being proud of her country and thinking Americans were downright mean. Talk about the bigotry of low expectations.

I had intended to write about the first day of the Democratic National Convention this morning, but man oh man, what a bore that thing was. There really isn't much to say. It was a completely scripted content-free pap-filled hokey Hollywood snoozefest (but the music wasn't bad). The big news was that Michelle Obama loves her country and the Obamas are a nice normal family, sort of like the Huxtables from the Cosby show. What a shock ! I thought she was going to dress as a Black Panther and say she hated AmeriKKKa. Please, Democrats, I KNOW when I'm being manipulated, especially when you make it so obvious (and I just loved the fake deference to Hillary, when Michelle O referred to the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. I bet that just mended all those fences between the Clintons and the Obamas. Yep).

So, instead of talking about Jimmah, Nan, Teddy, and the rest of that coma-inducing crew, I'm going to print the sequel column to "You Might Be A Liberal If..." by John Hawkins, since I printed part one last week. Here it is:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Republican party may not admit it, but they are breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning that Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama's Vice Presidential pick. An Obama-Clinton "dream team" ticket was viewed by the GOP as nearly unbeatable. According to Politico, Hillary wasn't even vetted by the Obama campaign, which may indicate she was never under consideration for the Veep post. I find that odd considering Hillary's status. She would have practically guaranteed the female vote in november.

I don't know if it's really fair to call Barack Obama a flip-flopper. A flip-flopper changes his mind about an issue, like John McCain did about offshore drilling. Obama does something a little different. He takes both sides of an issue at the same time and then acts like anyone who points it out is waging some personal attack against him. Obama then "fine tunes" his message according to the interests of whatever group to whom he is talking. If he's talking to his left-wing anti-war base, Iran is a tiny country and almost no threat to the USA. If he's talking to the Israelis, Iran is a grave threat. Obama has used this method of misdirection on almost every major issue, resulting in the bizarre circumstance where, the more you listen to Obama speak, the less you know about where he stands. He is both for and against capital punishment. He is both for and against the Second Amendment. He is either for or against increasing the Social Security payroll tax. He is either for or against increasing the capital gains tax. His tv ads say Obama is a taxcutter, but he is proposing more tax increases than any president in memory. He condemns the Bush deficits, but then says deficit reduction is not a priority for his administration, because there are too many "investments in America" (new government spending) he wants to make. He vilifies the Bush economy, but then plots the worst course imaginable in a shaky economy, big tax and spending increases. On and on it goes. Where it stops nobody knows. At the end of the day, his principles are almost unfathomable. It's no small wonder then, that his poll numbers are dropping (and no, Barack, it's NOT racism, you whiny baby).

Last night on CBS, the respected news program 60 Minutes aired an interview with "outed" CIA analyst Valerie Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson. Plame and Wilson allege the Bush administration revealed her status as a covert CIA operative as punishment for Joe Wilson's New York Times op-ed, which claimed the Bush administration lied about Saddam Hussein attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium from Africa.

I've been away from many of the trappings of modern civilization for the last few days, including Al Gore's invention, the Internet. I can't wait for Gore's next contribution to society to come to fruition, which I call 'Taxing The Air That We Breathe'. I knew the pols would figure out a way eventually. Since I only have a few minutes of computer time now, I want to get something posted here, so I'm going to abdicate responsibility and print an entire article from John Hawkins. I thought this one was pretty funny, and more than a little bit true. Without further delay, here's John.

FYI - I'll be back tomorrow (hey, stop that booing !).----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 REASONS YOU MIGHT BE A LIBERAL by John Hawkins

In 2007, Democratic presidential contender John Edwards accepted a Father Of The Year award. In 2006, John Edwards was banging some broad he picked up in a bar, Rielle Hunter, as Edwards' wife was battling cancer. Classy. He also put the broad he was banging on his campaign payroll as a videographer, paying her over $100,000, even though she didn't have any experience or qualifications. Rielle Hunter had a baby in february, and the father is unknown. There is speculation that Edwards may be the father. Somebody is still paying Rielle Hunter $15,000 per month. That is unknown at this point too. Edwards claims his affair with Miss Hunter ended in 2006, but if so, why did Edwards meet Hunter at the Beverly Hilton for 5 hours a couple weeks ago, exiting her hotel room at 2:45 in the morning ? Edwards ran away when confronted by National Enquirer reporters at that hotel, and barricaded himself into the hotel bathroom (there's a presidential action for you. What would Edwards have done as CINC during a foreign attack, pee his pants and put his hands over his eyes ?). The National Enquirer says Edwards has met with Miss Hunter at least 3 times in the last couple months. That's an odd way to conduct an ended affair.

Paris shoots, Paris scores. Take that, John McCain. That's what the Wrinkly Dude gets for using Paris in one of his political ads. Paris also doesn't engage in cheap vacuous sloganeering like the Change Guy (Barack Obama) does. She is a substantive candidate, but definitely outclasses the Change Guy in the style deparment too. I mean, can you imagine Obama in a bikini ? Ewww. Paris also wears the latest designer fashions. That's style, my friends. As proof of her substance, I'll repeat Paris Hilton's energy policy here, which leaves the Change Guy's plan in the dust.

The main problem with America's health care system isn't too difficult to determine. The problem is, health care is way too expensive. It's so expensive that many people can't afford it. It's so expensive that many people forego health care insurance. As an example, a friend of mine recently went to see a specialist to diagnose his back injury. That office visit cost $765. He then had two MRI's at a cost of $4500. The total cost was $5265 just for my friend to receive a diagnosis of his back injury (a fracture). No treatment of his injury was included for that price. This is just one tiny example of the insanely high costs associated with health care in this country. Here are some numbers about the high cost of health care from the non-partisan National Coalition On Health Care:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Planet) adjourned the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday morning at 11:23am, so our esteemed representatives could go on their five week summer recess. The adjournment vote was along partisan lines, with Republicans voting to stay in session to get an up/down vote on offshore oil drilling (which Congress and 78% of Americans support), and with the Pelosi-led Democrats voting to flip America the bird. The Dems turned off the lights and the microphones. C-SPAN turned off their cameras.

Barack Obama, his campaign cronies, and the liberal media have been predicting racially-oriented attacks against Obama from the "Republican smear machine" for at least a year now. Actually, "predicting" is the wrong word. The Obamans didn't predict racist attacks, they STATED WITH CERTAINTY that the racist Republicans would try to scare Americans to death by playing the race card against Obama. In fact, they were so certain these attacks would occur that they have imagined them into being out of nothing. In the absence of any overt racism by Republicans, the Obamans go looking for the "subtext," the "veiled racism." Let me explain how this subtle form of racism happens.